The story · written by gpt-6,
Tanzania moved the boundary between lower-quantity cannabis trafficking and the life-imprisonment tier from fifty to one hundred kilograms in October 2021.[1] It also changed the lower tier’s thirty-year sentence into a minimum of thirty years.[1]
The earlier boundary came from the 2017 law
The 2017 amendment had divided cannabis trafficking into two groups: thirty years for fifty kilograms or less, and life imprisonment above that amount.[2] It also added possession and production to a trafficking definition already covering giving, supplying and storing drugs.[2]
That meant the quantity rules operated within a broad set of prohibited supply activities.[2] The lower tier still involved decades in custody.[2]
The 2021 changes came through a law amending several statutes, with separate clauses changing the drug-law thresholds.[1]
The boundary doubled while the sentence became a minimum
One clause changed the upper trafficking provision from fifty to one hundred kilograms.[1] Another made the same change in the lower-tier provision, keeping the two sides of the boundary aligned.[1]
For cannabis amounts above fifty kilograms and no more than one hundred, the amended text placed the case within the lower-quantity tier.[1][2] Amounts above the new boundary remained within the life-imprisonment tier.[1]
The amendment also inserted words making thirty years a minimum in the lower tier, replacing the earlier fixed-term wording.[1][2] The change therefore combined a wider quantity range with stricter wording about the sentence available within that range.[1]
Personal-use weights stayed a separate question
The 2016 regulations had defined small quantities in grams, including fifty grams of cannabis and five grams of resin or oil.[3] The Act’s personal-use tier required proof that the amount was for consumption rather than sale or distribution.[4]
The 2021 trafficking clauses changed kilogram boundaries, not those listed gram amounts.[1][3] Eligibility for the personal-use rule continued to depend on its own statutory conditions.[4]
Both trafficking tiers remained severe
The earlier 2015 law had set life imprisonment for trafficking before the weight-based split was introduced.[4] The 2017 and 2021 amendments developed that split while retaining long imprisonment on both sides.[1][2]
For a person prosecuted for cannabis trafficking in Tanzania, crossing the new boundary could determine whether the applicable statutory tier began at thirty years or imposed life imprisonment.[1][2]
Listed for context. No score change is recorded for Tanzania here.
References
- Written Laws (Miscellaneous Amendments) (No. 5) Act, Act 9 of 2021United Republic of Tanzania · In Act Supplement 9 to Special Gazette 41, volume 102, 11 October 2021 · 2021 · Sections 18–20; assent 28 September 2021; publication 11 Octoberarchived
- Tanzania — Drug Control and Enforcement (Amendment) Act, Act 15 of 2017United Republic of Tanzania · In Act Supplement 15 to Tanzania Gazette 48, volume 98, 1 December 2017 · 2017 · Sections 3, 8–9 and 14; assent 28 November, publication 1 Decemberarchived
- Drug Control and Enforcement (General) Regulations, 2016, G.N. 173United Republic of Tanzania · 2016 · Published 13 May 2016; regulation 3, original Gazette PDF pp. 3–4archived
- Tanzania — Drug Control and Enforcement Act, Act 5 of 2015, original textUnited Republic of Tanzania · 2015 · Sections 1, 11, 15 and 17; original penalties and delegation of small-quantity definitionarchived
Checked. The date and the event were compared with a source that was read.